


what friends are for

by down



Category: Magic Knight Rayearth
Genre: F/F, Friends With Benefits, Sort Of, background Caldina/LaFarga which hasn't worked out, because the crack!ships multiply when you look away, implied future Clef/Ascot too, they're friends and there are apparently benefits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 14:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13719195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/down/pseuds/down
Summary: “It’s been three years!”“…Thirteen for me, I think,” Presea said, more wistfully than anything else.“What?” Caldina stared at her with complete horror on her face, and Presea burst out laughing. “That’s atrocious! Well, okay, we have to fix that. Get over here.”





	what friends are for

**Author's Note:**

> For the twelve days of Rayearth crack and first posted to tumblr. 
> 
> There’s alcohol involved, but with two people who know their limits and know that they’re not drunk yet.

“Presea! There you are - what’re you doing, working this late? You’ll give yourself wrinkles taking things so seriously!”

Presea looked up from a critical examination of her latest piece of work - she was trying to create a better balanced poniard - and stared as Caldina barrelled across to her, seized her arm, and dragged her back towards the door. “What - Caldina! Where are we going?” 

“We have important business to take care of!” Caldina declared, and there was a strangely sharp edge to her voice. Presea got her feet properly under herself and followed along. “Anyway, you’ve been hiding in that forgery room of yours too much lately.”

“It’s a _forge room_ , not a _forgery-_ ” Presea snapped, then sighed as Caldina smirked back at her. “With all the new recruits the guards are taking on, I’ve got a lot of work at the moment making sure they’re outfitted properly, that’s all.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Caldina muttered. But at the mention of the guards she’d looked away, smirk fading. 

‘Important business’ turned out to be the several large bottles of wine that Caldina had in her rooms. Presea eyed them, then flopped down on one of the low piles of cushions Caldina had amassed in the place of chairs. “Did you mean ‘important drinking’?” She asked, as Caldina opened the first. “Plus, you’d better be planning on feeding me if you expect us to get through all this tonight.” 

“Eh.” Caldina waved a hand. “I’ve got snacks in here somewhere…” 

“They’d better be substantial!” Presea took the glasses she was handed, and poured two large measures into each, while Caldina rummaged in the cabinet which stood at the foot of the bed. They’d been actual friends for a while, now, but this was the first impromptu drinking session she’d been dragged to. “…What are we drinking for, anyway?” 

“Oh, you know. Freedom, new possibilities, all that kind of thing…” 

Presea looked at the sharp line of Caldina’s back, and back at the bottles of wine. She drank down her glass, and reached for the bottle opener, opening a second bottle and handing it to Caldina as she turned back. “…You ended things with LaFarga?” 

“Eh.” Caldina pouted into the bottle, and then tilted it back, drinking straight from the neck. “We barely even got started.” 

“I’m sorry. I thought… it seemed to be going well?” Presea offered, and followed Caldina’s lead, ignoring the glasses. She wasn’t really good at this, never knew what to say when someone was upset. She was better at threatening to make the other party sorry for hurting her friend, but she quite liked LaFarga, what she knew of him.

Though Caldina didn’t seem to want her to say anything so much as be a companion while she got drunk. That, Presea could do. 

Caldina pouted harder, but there was real hurt in the ungraceful line of her hunched shoulders. “Not with someone who flinches every time I take out a fan, or wave an arm.” 

“…Ah.” 

“It’s only natural. I mean, I think he remembers more than he wants to admit about when - you know. We worked together.” When LaFarga was brainwashed by Zagato, that meant. “And my magic isn’t that far from… so, yeah.” She sighed. “I still thought we had a chance, though, you know? But it’s not working. I like him too much to keep trying. Isn’t that a strange thought?” She laughed, and the sound was harsh. 

Presea reached out and patted the other woman on the knee, awkwardly, then reached out for the box of biscuits Caldina had pulled from somewhere in the cabinet and opened them up, holding the box out. Caldina accepted one, looked at it, and sighed. “…They’re your snacks,” Presea told her. “But hang on ten minutes, and I’ll find something better. I’ll be right back.” 

“If you run off now, I’m gonna be too morose and drunk to come find you, then you’ll feel guilty and have a terrible evening!” Caldina threatened, in a slightly watery fashion. 

Presea snorted. “If I don’t find something better than this for us to eat, we’ll _both_ be having a terrible evening. Don’t worry, I’ll come back.” 

oOo

An hour or two later, they’d made their way through two buitekku servings each, and had various other deserts scattered about them on the floor as they lounged in the cushions. Caldina hadn’t talked about it, much - she’d talked, but mostly about her life before she left Chizeta, and the various places she’d been. Presea had listened willingly enough, and offered up a few stories of her own past in return. 

It was years since she’d done this - lounged about with a friend and just talked. Even in the circumstances, it was… relaxing. 

Or maybe that was the amount of wine she’d had so far. 

“That’s when I first met Guru Clef, anyway,” she said, finishing off the tale of how she’d been summoned by Emeraude-hime to be appointed Faaru, but had spent the entire way to the castle thinking she was about to be dismissed from her position as a smith for wasting materials on her experimenting. 

Caldina looked at her over the top of her bottle. “If you want anything to happen with that ancient-kid-mage, you should hurry up and go for it already. Or you’ll be too late,” she advised. 

Snickering at the description of Clef, Presea rolled onto her back to stare at the ceiling. “That’s not… the thing with Clef, it’s not the kind of ‘like’ you do anything about.”

“…Eh?” 

“It’s always been more about the idea of him than actually, you know, _him_ , as a real person and all that. A crush. From where I was, on the margins of the court, he just seemed so… noble.” She grinned. “And _completely incapable_ of putting up with shit from _anyone_. It was glorious to watch! So I have this lovely fantasy idea of him that it’s nice to think about when things are a mess, but it isn’t… it’s not a real love. There’s no actual relationship involved. Even if I think he _is_ the cutest thing in the world sometimes when he gets excited about something.”

“You and Ascot both,” Caldina grouched. “He’s terrifying! You have terrible taste, you know that, right?” 

Presea flopped onto her side so she could see Caldina, smirk growing. “Are you pissed off because if I don’t get there first, you think Ascot’s gonna try?” 

“ _I don’t know what either of you see in him!_ ” Caldina snapped. That was absolutely a ‘yes’.

Reaching for her mostly-empty bottle of wine again, almost absently, Presea took another drink. “Anyway, most men don’t really know how to get this equipment going.” She waved a hand at herself and then Caldina, to indicate the ‘equipment’ she meant. “They don’t usually have their own set to experiment with. It’s disappointing half the time. I don’t go to bed with someone because I want to teach them what they should be doing.” She pulled a face. “But I still like as many of them as I do women. It’s a pain!”

Caldina raised her bottle in a toast at that, with an aggrieved sigh. “It’s still better than solo practise, though! It’s been three years!” 

“…Thirteen for me, I think,” Presea said, more wistfully than anything else. 

“ _What?_ ” Caldina stared at her with complete horror on her face, and Presea burst out laughing. “That’s atrocious! Well, okay, we _have_ to fix that. Get over here.” 

“It’s not that bad,” Presea protested - even as she moved a couple of the plates out of the way between them. 

Caldina waved an imperious hand at her, sweeping her opinions aside. “Yes, it is! But that’s what friends are for, right? Especially when they’re as hot as me.” She proceeded to wave the bottle-clasping hand at herself, somehow not spilling anything even as she posed in her stack of cushions and dessert wrappings. “You’re not hard on the eyes, either.” 

“…Thanks, I guess,” Presea muttered. She knelt on the floor and looked at Caldina, conscience twinging. “We’re drunk. You should ask again tomorrow, if you think it’s as bad as all that.”

“Oh, come on! We’ve barely had a bottle each, and this stuff is weak as _shit_. I’ve seen you drink more at a party and go back to work for the afternoon, and I’m not even buzzed! I wanted to drink all night, but I didn’t want to feel it tomorrow morning, you know?” 

Presea wrinkled her nose, and glanced back at the bottle, and… okay, yes, given the wine Caldina had picked, they were neither of them going to be more than a little relaxed. “Still…” 

“What? Don’t you think I’m hot?” Caldina glared at her, and Presea burst out laughing, before leaning over to kiss her friend, meaning to keep it light and, well, friendly. Then Caldina’s mouth was actually pressed to hers, hot and open and tasting faintly of wine. 

It had been a long time, after all. 

Presea shuddered, and leant closer as Caldina hummed against her lips, apparently pleased with developments. She slid her arms about Presea’s shoulders and arched up against her, and Presea grabbed hold of Caldina’s waist and held on tight. Within five minutes her hair had been let down and was spread about her on the cushions as she lay on her back, staring up at Caldina breathlessly as Caldina fumbled with the clips that held Presea’s tunic. 

“I can’t believe people make fun of _my_ clothing when you wander about wearing this,” Caldina was muttering. “Sure, your arms are covered, but you forgot to put on trousers! At least some shorts or something! But no, you just hang out in your underwear all the time… at least that magic dress thing you wear while you’re working looks like it’s _meant_ to be sexy and I’m allowed to stare at your legs.” 

“…I’ve got nice legs,” Presea managed, sliding one up Caldina’s side just to see her get distracted a moment. 

“Yes, you _do_ ,” Caldina hissed. “They’re really distracting some days, you know that?” 

“What, like now?” She wrapped both legs up about Caldina’s back and rocked up to kiss her, highly amused when Caldina’s hands fumbled and she gave in trying to undo Presea’s clothes in favour of just trying to yank them off. Laughing, Presea broke away to help, flicking the clasps open herself and then worming out of her shirt. The underclothes she wore gave Caldina a lot less trouble, and the first touch of confident hands on her chest had her head tilting back against the pillows, a sigh on her lips.

“Very distracting,” Caldina said again, but this time her voice was full of approval. 

“Glad to be of use,” Presea managed, as Caldina slid her hands lower. “What else are- friends for- _ah!_ ”

oOo

In the morning, Presea woke with her arms full of Caldina, tangled together with her under the sheets. She felt… relaxed, as she hadn’t been since things first started going wrong. 

Caldina stirred slightly, and then nuzzled in closer to Presea’s chest, apparently completely unfazed by waking up in bed with her. “You should either go and get us breakfast, or distract me from it,” she demanded, but in such a sleepy voice that Presea had to grin. 

“I got food last night. It’s your turn to go.” 

“Meh.” Caldina blinked up at her, wide eyes attempting to look innocent. “Without a good-morning kiss?” 

“…You’re incorrigible,” Presea muttered, but leant in anyway, savouring the warmth and the closeness. 

Caldina wriggled closer, bare skin pressed to bare skin under the covers and a smirk on her face. “No, I’m just a _very_ good friend.”

“Mm. Maybe you need to prove it.” Presea kissed her again. “I don’t know that I remember last night well enough to judge how ‘good’ you are.” 

“Oh, _really?_ ” 

oOo

Presea ended up going to fetch breakfast for them anyway. But she couldn’t say Caldina hadn’t earned it.

oOo


End file.
